Tag Archives: Malware

Los Angeles College Pays Hackers $28,000 Ransom To Get Its Files Back

Ransomware has turned on to a noxious game of Hackers to get paid effortlessly.

Once again the heat was felt by the Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) when hackers managed to infect its computer network with ransomware and demanded US$28,000 payment in Bitcoins to get back online.

The cyber-attack occurred over winter break and caused widespread disruption to online, financial aid, email and

New Android Malware Hijacks Router DNS from Smartphone

Another day, another creepy malware for Android users!

Security Researchers have uncovered a new Android malware targeting your devices, but this time instead of attacking the device directly, the malware takes control over the WiFi router to which your device is connected to and then hijacks the web traffic passing through it.

Dubbed “Switcher,” the new Android malware, discovered by

Did You Install Super Mario Run APK for Android? That's Malware

After the success of Pokémon Go, Nintendo’s “Super Mario Run” has become the hottest game to hit the market with enormous popularity and massive social impact. The game has taken the world by storm since its launch for iOS devices over a week ago.

Can you believe — it was downloaded more than 40 million times worldwide in its first four days of release.

But if you have downloaded a Super

The Biggest Cyber-attacks of 2016

The worst cyber attacks of this year.

Cyber threats have been around all year. It’s actually really hard to compile a list of the top 3 cyber-attacks as evaluating the damage caused by a single cyber thread is nearly impossible. However we have been monitoring the cyber space for the past year so we made it possible to highlight some of the really bad ones.

The US election and how the hackers decided the winner of the US presidential elections

With complete respect towards democracy and people’s choices, it is not a secret thay hackers managed to get to many of the emails sent from and to one of the presidential candidates and members of her team. Yes, Hillary Clinton was under fire because emails of hers and her staff members ended up in the wrong hands.

Of course the authenticity of the emails was never officially confirmed but those emails cast a big shadow on her campaign. According to many, fake news generators mixed with ‘food for thought’ type of email leaks ended up deciding the results of the US presidential election.

We are never going to know if state hackers were behind the attacks or simply groups such as Anonymous and WikiLeaks. Who knows, maybe they wanted to get back at the Democratic Party for Obama’s actions during the Edward Snowden and Julian Assange cases. I guess we will never know…

Yahoo data breach

Earlier this year Yahoo admitted to more than 500 million user accounts being stolen from them back in 2013. Yes, it is true – your username and password might have been on sale in databases offered on the Dark Web for the past few years. When this was officially announced Panda Security advised people who had interactions with Yahoo to change their passwords.

Users are advised to change their passwords every 3 months nevertheless most people won’t change them. Clearly this is a personal choice. However if you don’t change your passwords regularly, your login details may still be circulating in the dark web and you are still under danger of being hacked. Just so you understand how high the stakes are here, because of this hack, when Verizon acquired Yahoo earlier this year they were able to negotiate a better deal.

DDoS Attacks

A massive cyber-attack against US DNS service provider Dyn knocked out major websites across the Internet earlier this year. The attack affected several websites, including Netflix, Twitter, Amazon and The New York Times.

The Internet service was disrupted for almost 11 hours, affecting more than one billion customers around the world. This attack added to the list of those suffered by a number of tech giants in 2016, such as the hack of 60 million Dropbox user IDs and 100 million LinkedIn passwords.

What’s next?

It surely has been a hell of a year so far, and it is not over yet. A few weeks ago Google was reportedly sending a new batch of warning emails to users, informing them that government-backed attackers might be trying to steal their passwords. The story is still unfolding. According to Wired, Russian hackers are targeting Germany’s elections. Would they succeed?

In 2017 we anticipate the unravelling of the Juliane Assange and Edward Snowden cases. Hopefully DDoS attacks will become harder to execute as regulations for connected consumer electronics are being strengthened. Would government supported hackers continue to change the political landscapes across the globe? We will also keep an eye on voice interactions with consumer electronics as they keep on growing.

Stay tuned!

The post The Biggest Cyber-attacks of 2016 appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Artificial Intelligence: the Future of Fighting Cybercrime

The future of corporate security lies in artificial intelligence. In fact, for better or worse, algorithms will turn out to be crucial to the protection of corporate data. These two faces of the same coin will be nothing less than malware capable of mimicking human behavior and, on the flip side, solutions that can predict which threats will endanger your company’s networks.

To date, there are already algorithms capable of imitating writing styles, and this is precisely the key to the future of cyberattacks. Just imagine, for example, an employee who receives an email supposedly sent by a superior asking him to make a money transfer. The sender doesn’t arouse suspicion because the ill-intentioned algorithm has very believably mimic the superior in question’s writing style. This is a situation we are already seeing today.

According to the FBI, this sort of attack is not science fiction. There are already plenty of businesses that have fallen prey to these attacks, which have entailed losses of $23 million. As artificial intelligence makes headway and gains the ability to analyze more and more data of the person it plans to impersonate, so-called CEO fraud will become increasingly sophisticated and difficult to combat.

The Counterattack

However, all is not lost. As difficult as it may seem to counter these methods, businesses should take comfort in the upsides of artificial intelligence.

Indeed, the cybersecurity systems of tomorrow will come by way of algorithms that can prophesize future threats. To do this, they must first identify corporate system vulnerabilities that could give way to malicious software. The goal is for A.I. to be able to detect anomalies on company networks before it is too late.

For better or worse, companies will need to keep up with advances in A.I. to keep their confidential data confidential. It will be both the problem and the solution all at once. A new starting signal in the cybersecurity race that calls for the adequate protection of your company.

The post Artificial Intelligence: the Future of Fighting Cybercrime appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Warning: Malware can get you shot

Malware

A malware infection can do more than leak your contacts and drain your bank account. It might result in you getting shot. A specialized app for sighting field artillery has reportedly been hacked and repackaged with malware. Instead of just helping Ukrainian soldiers set up their artillery units more quickly, the hacker-enhanced app also sent […]

The post Warning: Malware can get you shot appeared first on Avira Blog.

Hackers Suspected of Causing Second Power Outage in Ukraine

The same group of hackers that caused the power outage across several regions in Ukraine last Christmas holidays might have once again shut down power supply in northern Ukraine during the weekend.

According to Ukrainian energy provider Ukrenergo, a cyber attack on Kyiv’s power grid may have caused the power outages in the country on Saturday, December 17, near midnight.

The blackout